During a December 11 segment on Fox News’ America’s News
HQ, host Shannon Bream invited former Macy’s employee Natalie Johnson and
Mathew Staver, founder of the anti-LGBT Liberty Counsel, to discuss Johnson’s recent termination
from her job in San Antonio, TX.

Johnson was fired earlier this month after she violated Macy’s non-discrimination policy by challenging a
transgender teenager who chose to use the woman’s changing room. With the help
of the Liberty Counsel, she has filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission.

During the segment, Fox’s Bream listened quietly as her
guests repeated a number of anti-trans smears, including referring to the
transgender teen as “a man... wearing lipstick” and promoting the right-wingmyth that transgender protections put women and girls “in
jeopardy”:

Bream didn’t find it necessary to point out that, contrary
to her guests assertions, transgender
people are not just people who choose to slap on some lipstick for the day.

She didn’t mention that Staver and Johnson’s view of
transgender people has been strongly rejected by the American Psychological
Association, which condemns attempts to discriminate on the basis of gender
identity.

Nor did she point out the
extreme discrimination faced by transgender men and women in America on a daily
basis. A recent survey found that 53 percent of transgender
respondents had experienced discrimination in public accommodations, including
37 percent that report having been harassed or disrespected in a retail store.

Instead of accurately portraying the problem of
discrimination based on gender identity, Bream allowed her guests to openly
chuckle as they trivialized the experience of the transgender teen and attacked
Macy’s non-discrimination policy.

This isn’t the first time that Fox News has demonstrated its
willingness to abandon its “fair and balanced” mantra in order to advance an
anti-LGBT agenda. The network routinely conducts softballinterviews
with anti-LGBT victims who claim their religious freedom is under attack.

Rather than making the effort to
host a real discussion about the tension between non-discrimination
and religious freedom, Fox prefers to let its anti-LGBT guests do all the
talking.